


Lusco-Fusco

by jfmesq



Series: THE "INVADER" AND THE MOST PLEASED HOST [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, But Vicchan lives, Designer Victor, Different everything actually, F/F, Jornalist Yuuri, Living Together, M/M, Post Makkachin's death, Victor owns a brand of pet products, Yuuri in St. Petersburg, only Phichit is still a skater, pet death, with Mila and Christophe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-02-27 18:32:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18744715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jfmesq/pseuds/jfmesq
Summary: Locked outside in a foreign city, Yuuri and Vicchan have nowhere to go when a little hand of fate reaches out to put him in the apartment of an adorable stranger, who needs something to shake him from his misery.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey people!
> 
> So, this is my work for YOI Home Zine, Okaeri. I'm very proud of this fic... it ended up with a lot of humourous and ridiculously funny situations, just how I like it, and I hope everyone likes it too.
> 
> A huge THANK YOU to my beta and inspiration muse N3rd for helping me fill the holes on the story and polishing the text. You onw my heart, dear! :*

  


  


_LUSCO-FUSCO: in portuguese, the moment of transition between the day and the night; the evening twilight; the nightfall._

_  
_

********

  


The freezing wind blew over the street, making Yuuri shiver. His loneliness and desperation clung to him, worsening the fear steadily building inside of his stomach.

It was past 3 am, and not a single soul could be seen on the streets of St. Petersburg. Behind him, Vicchan whined and stopped walking, making his leash sag. His poor dog couldn’t stand to be in the cold anymore and Yuuri took Vicchan in his arms, closing his coat around his furbaby while he continued to walk.

A few blocks later, he found a recessed building entrance with a stairwell protected from the howling wind by the sides of the surrounding walls. They were both tired, neither of them able to continue to fight the cold any longer. Yuuri could barely feel his hands and feet, the duffel bag on his shoulder was hurting his back, and the stairs seemed like a good place to rest for a bit. Yuuri sat on the ice-coated stones of the steps, holding Vicchan close and trying to warm both his dog and his hands now that they were a bit more protected from the wind.

Groaning as he rubbed his sore hands together, Yuuri grumbled about the reason he was in this situation. “Phichit… I swear...:” he gritted his teeth trying to withhold his frustration.

He had scheduled a visit to his best friend weeks ago, but when his plane landed at the airport and he turned on his phone, it immediately chimed with a message from Phichit. Apparently, he had to travel in a hurry because of a family emergency, but Phichit directed Yuuri to stay in his apartment. Sighing, Yuuri had gathered Vicchan into his arms and slipped into the back of a cab, providing Phichit’s address before resting back against the seat.

The key was in the plant vase beside Phichit’s door and as Yuuri dug it out, he talked to Vicchan to calm his nerves. A tactic that was foiled when the key wouldn’t go into the lock. It simply didn’t fit.

Desperately, he tried to call and message Phichit with no response. Maybe Phichit was still in the middle of the flight, maybe he was busy with his family, either way Yuuri was screwed.

He tried hotels, inns and whatever he could find nearby on Google Maps, but the only ones that accepted dogs were completely booked due to the Grand Prix of figure skating and Christmas. During his hasty searches it had grown late, not a single cab on the streets, not a single familiar person in the city besides Phichit, and even finding a motel to spend the night had proven impossible. Without other options, Yuuri found himself locked outside with his bag and his poodle.

Curling his arms around Vicchan’s tiny body, Yuuri contemplated finding a park bench to sleep on. His body could potentially handle spending the night on a bench, but he worried about Vicchan’s ability to survive in the cold. His tiny dog was shaking a lot, and the way Vicchan looked at Yuuri made his heart hurt. Holding his furball closer, Yuuri tried not to think about the possibility of Vicchan getting sick because Yuuri had put him in danger.

Suddenly, the front door of the building opened and a red-haired woman ran out. She seemed very distracted, and only saw Yuuri sitting on the steps when she almost stumbled over him. _“Izvinite, izvinite*…”_ she repeated with a worried expression, and Yuuri guessed she was apologizing although he couldn’t understand the language she was speaking.

When she saw the brown fluff in his arms, she stopped talking. She frowned, making the worry on her face deepen, and leaned down to slowly reach her hand in the direction of Vicchan’s head. She said something that sounded like a question, and Yuuri opened his jacket a little more to let his dog out. The girl petted Vicchan, and he licked her hand and whined.

She smiled fondly, and spoke again. This time, the words sounded vaguely familiar. Yuuri only knew the basics of Russians (enough to be polite or possibly save his life) but couldn’t hold a conversation. “I don’t speak Russian,” he said in careful English, hoping that it might be a language they shared.

Smiling, she nodded, her red hair bobbing with the movement. “Name of dog?” she asked, the depth of her accent making Yuuri struggle to understand her.

“Victor…” he said, petting Vicchan’s head.

She seemed very surprised, widening her blue eyes and laughing a little. Holding a hand out, she grinned wider. “Mila,” she said with a raised eyebrow and an expectant smile.

“Yuuri,” he replied offering his hand to shake hers with his own shy smile. He jumped when Vicchan wiggled from his grasp and threw himself into Mila’s arms.

Mila laughed and held Vicchan, sinking her face into his fur while he sniffed her hair. “Good doggy,” she murmured, raising her eyes to look at Yuuri. “You two very cold!” It wasn’t a question, and Yuuri could practically see her thinking. “Come,” Mila ordered, holding Vicchan in her arms and marching back into the building.

“Wait!” he shouted, grabbing his bag and following her. The moment he crossed the front door was a relief. It was much warmer inside and he could start to feel his limbs again. Mila was hurrying toward the elevators, and he ran to reach her before the doors closed.

Mila spoke quickly in Russian, intermittently switching to terrible English, and never pausing to explain what she was doing. She kept saying the words “Victor away,” “poodles,” “warm inside,” and “love” leaving Yuuri confused as to why she was speaking so fondly of his dog. Assuming that is was simply her love for dogs, Yuuri nodded politely, watching as the numbers on the elevator blinked higher. At the very top floor, the elevator stopped with a soft _ping_. Muscling through the opening doors, Mila ran to the last apartment door in the corridor, pulling a key out of her pocket as she went. Carefully cradling Vicchan in one arm, Mila made quick work of the lock.

The apartment was really cozy made up of a nice living room with an open kitchen attached to a dining area and some closed doors that he guessed led to the bedrooms and bathrooms, but it seemed empty of people. Mila put Vicchan on the floor and he started exploring the place. Yuuri entered and kept waiting for Mila to take off her coat and hang it on the wall next to the door, but she didn’t.

Yuuri assumed this was her home, and yet she also didn’t offer Vicchan food or water, or even instruct Yuuri to remove his coat. When Yuuri turned to her, questions tumbling uselessly in his mind, he cocked his head to watch her fiddle with the heater. Opening his mouth to speak, Yuuri’s jaw hung open when Mila headed for the door, throwing a friendly wave over her shoulder and saying “stay at will!” before closing the door behind her. Dumbfounded and utterly speechless, Yuuri stood in the middle of the living room and asked “what is happening?” to no one in particular.

He looked at Vicchan, who had already found a spot on the sofa between some fluffy blankets. “You surely know how to make friends, huh buddy?” Vicchan happily barked from his comfy nest.

Yuuri put his bag on the floor and sat beside him, having no idea what to do with himself. Sure, he was in need of a place to stay, but how could he invade the house of a stranger? And possibly not the stranger who had let him in?

What if the owner came back? How would he explain any of this? “Hi! My name is Yuuri, I got locked outside and a crazy red-haired girl put me here to spend the night, since we didn’t want my dog to freeze outside. I think. By the way, what’s your name?” Speaking out loud revealed the panic rising inside of him, evident in every squeak of his hurried rant.

He put his elbows on his knees, sank his face on his hands and sighed out loud. This was not going the way he imagined. He came to St. Petersburg to spend time with Phichit, support him on his second event of The Grand Prix and write an exclusive interview with his best friend to sell to some famous magazine if Phichit won the gold medal. Now, Yuuri had barely entered the country and was already breaking into someone’s home. _What a nice way to start a trip_ , he thought bitterly, groaning as he threw his head back on the couch.

As always, Vicchan felt his angst and snuggled into Yuuri’s lap. For better or for worse, his cute little dog was the reason they found a nice place to stay the night and Yuuri leaned down to press appreciative kisses onto Vicchan’s head. In the morning, they could leave and try to find someplace else, but tonight, they were both exhausted, and Yuuri could only thank his friendly fluff ball’s cuteness for saving them from the cold.

Making himself comfortable on the couch to rest his aching body, Yuuri instantly began to drift toward sleep with Vicchan draped over his chest and snoring softly in time with Yuuri’s slowing breaths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Izvinite: "I'm sorry", in russian.
> 
> \-----
> 
> Hey guys, so what do you think? I live for comments, so tell me what you find in the comments ;D
> 
> The first chapters are gonna be small, but I'll post them every day until the end of this part of the story. See you tomorrow! :*


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people! Second chapter today! I'm so excited about the response this fic is getting! XD
> 
> There are some sentences in russian on this chapter, so you can go to the end notes to see the meanings. If it's wrong (and you are russian), please let me know so I can fix them XD  
> EDIT: Thanks for helping me fix it, dear Katnor and Aenaestasis! You're awesome! ♡♡♡
> 
> Enjoy!

Yuuri woke up with his furry friend licking his face, as he always did when he needed to go outside. They went for a little walk around the corner, stopping at a small store to buy dog food and a bowl. Yuuri still felt strange when they came back to the apartment, but he needed to at least feed his dog and shower, and then they could leave things just as they were when they had arrived. With some luck, no one would ever notice they had been there.

He fed Vicchan, then gave him some water and took some clothes and a towel out of his duffel bag. Thinking about carefully opening the doors to find out where was the bathroom, he was glad he found it in his first attempt. Relieved he wouldn’t need to intrude more than he already had, Yuuri carefully set his things on the counter and leaned into the shower to flick the water on.

Feeling the hot water run over his body was like a gift from heaven. Even with the heater on, the house had remained chilly, and the fast walk he took with Vicchan was enough to leave them freezing again. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, this was Russia in the beginning of winter after all, but knowing it and feeling it were two completely different things.

While lathering his body with the liquid soap he bought from the store, he heard a noise at the front door and panicked. What he feared was happening, and his heart started to dance flamenco in his chest. Slamming off the water and snagging the closest towel, Yuuri froze when he heard a man’s voice filling the house.

“Маккачин?! Это ты? Не может быть... ты такая маленькая.”*

Vicchan barked like crazy, and Yuuri hurried to see what was going on and hopefully explain everything before the man contacted the authorities. He came out of the bathroom completely soaked, putting his glasses on his face with one hand and holding the towel around his hip with the other. Freezing in the corridor, Yuuri saw the most beautiful man in the world kneeling to take his dog into his arms.

The man had a really nice body wrapped in stylish clothes, a beautiful head of silver hair that fell like cascade over his face when he leaned down to hold Vicchan, and the most wonderful laugh Yuuri had ever heard in his life. But the best part was when the man looked up at him, and Yuuri could see his gorgeous blue eyes taking him in. It was hard to define the expression on the man’s face after he dropped his smile, and Yuuri squirmed under the curious observation.

“Вы кто”** The man calmly spoke, making Yuuri release the breath he didn’t even notice he was holding. “I can explain... but... in English?” Yuuri said, and against all odds, the man gave him a cute heart shaped smile and a simple “ok!” in acceptance. He was handling all of this much better than Yuuri, considering Yuuri was the one standing in a towel, dripping all over this stranger’s floor. Taking a steadying breath, Yuuri put his hand on his chest. “My name is Yuuri and this is my dog, Victor…”

“Victor?” the man interrupted, while lifting Vicchan to look at his belly and below. “But this is a boy’s name and she is a… ooohhhhh, it’s a boy.” He said eyes widening and looking a bit more sad than before. “Well, this is a funny coincidence, because my name is Victor too!” Pointing to himself, Victor grinned. “But how did you end up here?”

Moving back to the door, Victor slipped out of his coat and hung it on the hook, switching Vicchan from arm to arm as he went. Kicking off his shoes, Victor continued to act as if this situation was the most normal thing in the world. Seeing a stranger, dripping wet and clad only in a towel, and a tiny unknown dog taking up space in his apartment didn’t appear to be upsetting Victor at all.

“Well, we arrived in Russia yesterday... and for a bunch of... random reasons... I got locked outside the apartment where I was supposed to stay and couldn’t find a hotel that accepted dogs. Then this red-haired girl found us and brought us here because we were freezing outside. But don’t worry… we slept on the couch and I didn’t use any of your things in the bath...” Yuuri stopped his blabbering and only then did he look down at his body, realizing he was still practically naked in front of a stranger and soaking the floor.

“Oh God! I’m sorry! I’ll put some clothes on! Please don’t leave! I mean… of course you wouldn’t leave, this is your home. What I meant is, please don’t call the police!” So, just… um… wait there... one moment!” Spinning toward the bathroom as fast as he could, Yuuri locked himself inside and tried to catch his breath. His heart was pounding so fast he was afraid he would have a heart attack and have to be taken to the hospital by an unknown gorgeous human while wrapped in nothing but a towel. Banging his head against the closed door, Yuuri couldn’t think a single thought beyond the fact that this was a complete disaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Маккачин?! Это ты? Не может быть... ты такая маленькая. = Makkachin? Is that you? It can’t be… you’re so tiny.
> 
> **Вы кто = who are you?
> 
> \-------
> 
> Hey guys, so what did you think about second chapter? Don't forget to tell me your thoughts on the comments XD
> 
> Chapter 3 comes tomorrow! See you! ; )


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

Watching Yuuri walk away, Victor felt his smile go a little lopsided in his elation. The adorable pup was still circling his ankles and Victor couldn’t help but laugh.

It was a wonderful blessing to come home to two such adorable beings! _How could he be so lucky?_ he wondered, plopping down on the ground to let dog Victor curl up in his lap. God must have liked him a lot to have Mila stumble across such a handsome young man and the cutest poodle on Earth and have the forethought to put them in Victor’s apartment. Victor was so distracted by thanking his lucky stars, he jumped when his cell phone rang.

Pulling it from his pocket, Victor smiled at the familiar name. “Chris?”

_“Hi Victor. Sorry for not picking you up at the airport. Things are a little crazy out-”_

“Chris, you will never guess what happened!” Victor interrupted, unable to contain his excitement.

_“Mila put a handsome stranger and his cute dog in your house?”_

“How do you know that?! Do you have a crystal ball or some new mistic hobby I don’t know of?” Confused, Victor smiled down at dog Victor and ran his fingers through his soft fur.

_“Of course not, you dork! Mila called me this morning to tell me she found you a surprise.”_

“Oh, right! But this wasn’t the best part! Guess what he was wearing when I arrived?”

_“Nothing?”_

“Chris, do you have cameras in my house?!” Victor squawked.

_“Why would I do that? I could guess by the way you sound all excited!”_

“Well, technically, you are _wrong_. He was wearing a towel, and he had his hair slicked back in the most sexy way, and he came out of the bathroom putting his glasses on… you know I love men in glasses, right? And he was soaking wet, Chris! I think it was love at first sight!”

_“Hehehe… the way you’re talking, I have no doubts. Even I want to meet Mr. Soaking Wet now.”_

“I have an idea! How about we have dinner in my place? You need to see his poodle, he’s so fluffy and looks so much like Makkachin when she was a puppy! And he has my name Chris! His dog’s name is Victor too! How can you say it is not fate?!”

_“I can’t. All I can say is what i’ve been saying to you for months now… have fun!”_

“Alright, alright. He turned off the shower again, I think he is leaving the bathroom. Talk to you soon.”

_“Goodbye, cherri.”_

Yuuri came out of the bathroom totally dressed with his hair still dripping, dragging a towel to dry the damp floor he had left in his wake. “Victor, I just wanted to say I’m really sorry for invading your house like this. I have never done something like this, and wouldn’t have done it if Mila hadn’t seen us in the cold outside. But it’s alright, because we are leaving, okay?”

Snagging the damp towel from the ground, Yuuri went to hang it in the bathroom before heading back to the living room and kneeling to shove his belongings in his duffel bag. Yuuri refused to look at Victor’s face. When he got up and put his bag over his shoulder, Victor peered at him with a forlorn downturn of his mouth.

“What? Are you leaving?” Victor asked, widening his eyes and pouting.

“Sure! It’s not right to be here. You don’t even know us!” Yuuri answered while passing by Victor to hook Vicchan’s leash.

“Do you even have a place to stay? You said before you couldn’t find a hotel that accepted your dog!” Victor almost shouted with a desperate voice.

Yuuri stopped with his hands in the air, letting the leash dangle loosely between his hand and Vicchan’s collar. “No, I didn’t find a place actually…” it hadn’t crossed his mind before, he just wanted to get out of the apartment.

Standing, Victor pulled the leash of Yuuri’s hand with a fast movement. “I won’t let you make poor little Victor go out in this terrible weather again. Have you checked the temperature? He doesn’t even have a coat!” Victor declared holding the leash in the air out of Yuuri’s reach.

“Look, that’s nice of you to worry about us, but we can’t continue to be here uninvited and…”

“Well, then I’m inviting you if that’s the problem!”

“Victor… you are a good person, but I would feel like an intruder.” Yuuri sighed, looking down at Vicchan sitting by his feet.

“Yuuri, I live alone. I had no company, no guests, no family to spend time with me for a long time, and I’m telling the truth when I say it would be a great pleasure if you decided to stay.” Yuuri raised his eyes and saw Victor kneeling and extending his hands to Vicchan who promptly accepted the offer of affection.

“I love dogs… I lost my girl almost a year ago, and she was a brown poodle too. This little guy reminds me so much of her…” Victor held Vichan close, and it broke Yuuri’s heart to see the way Victor’s eyes fluttered closed as he cuddled Vicchan against his chest.. Yuuri didn’t know what he would do if he lost Vicchan.

“Okay… don’t cry… please. We will stay… But..but... just until my friend gets back home, then we will move to his apartment as I originally planned.” He watched as Victor’s lips spread into the biggest smile as he snuggled Vicchan even tighter.

“Did you hear that buddy? Your daddy decided to stay! We are going to be such good friends you and I, aren’t we? Yes, we are!” Victor kept talking to Vicchan with a silly voice, and Yuuri felt like a melting candlestick with every word.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! What did you think of this chapter? Personally, it's my favorite so far XD  
> Please let me know in the comments! Or come to say Hi on my tumblr @jfmesq ; )


	4. Chapter 4

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
Yuuri!  
OMG! I’m so sorry! Are you ok in the apartment?

_Yuuri_ :  
Hey Phichit!  
What happened? What was the emergency?

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
My father got in a car accident.  
It wasn’t very serious, but mom was pretty shocked.  
I had to come to help her take care of things.  
What about you?

_Yuuri_ :  
I’m sorry about your father. I hope he recovers soon.  
About the apartment… you have no idea!

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
OMG! What happened?  
Is it good or bad?

_Yuuri_ :  
I couldn’t say…  
But the key you left in the plant vase didn’t fit in the keyhole.

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
WHAT?!?!  
How is that possible?  
Unless…  
OMG! Yuuri, the right key is here with me! o.0

_Yuuri:_  
I figured…

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
 _I was a little frazzled when_ I left.  
What did you and Vicchan do? Where did you stay?

_Yuuri:_  
Actually, we pretty much invaded the house of an unknown person with  
the help of a crazy red-haired girl who found us freezing on the street.

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
WHAAAAATTTTTT?!?!?!?!

_Yuuri_ :  
We were seeking shelter from cold in this building entrance when she came out  
and saw us. Then she took Vicchan and went back in the building with him, leading us to  
this really nice apartment on the top floor. Then she disappeared and left us here.

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
Yuuri, you’re so lucky!  
Wait… “here”? You’re still in the apartment?

_Yuuri:_  
I am, and btw, the owner fell in love with Vicchan and won’t let us leave.

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
lol  
These things just happen to you!

_Yuuri_ :  
And most of the time they happen… because of you!

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
I don’t know what you’re talking about!  
Btw, what is the owner like?

_Yuuri:_  
Just a kind-hearted and gorgeous man who looks like he  
came out of a magazine cover... you know, the usual ¬¬!

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
Wow!  
Turns out the wrong key did a pretty good job!

_Yuuri:_  
Phichit, please don’t start!

_Phichit (former best friend):_  
I didn’t say anything!  
Hey, I have to go! Mom is calling me from the hospital room.  
TTYL

_Yuuri_ :  
Ok! Tell Mrs. Chulanont I’m sorry for what happened!  
Bye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what do you think of this ridiculous friendship! XD


	5. Chapter 5

The days passed smoothly in the apartment. Victor and Yuuri had their own routines and job schedules, but they still had breakfast and dinner together, when Victor didn’t invite Yuuri to have lunch in some nice restaurant too.

In the mornings and evenings, they took turns on walking Vicchan (even if Yuuri said it wasn’t Victor’s responsibility, making Victor “humpf” at him and go through the door talking excitedly with the little dog), and many times they even walked him together, when Yuuri needed to go to the drugstore or the grocery store and Victor kindly showed him the way, insisting on acting as his translator too. Yuuri even suspected Victor picked only the farther places so that their walk would take longer. Now that Victor had given Vicchan a pet winter coat (a lot of them, actually), he was safe to stay longer in the cold.

Besides these moments together, they stayed separated during most of day hours. After Victor left for work, Yuuri opened his laptop to go through virtual newspapers, specially the sports sections, his job area. Then he checked his emails and started to work on the assignments of the magazines, blogs and news websites he wrote for.

A couple of days after arriving in Victor’s apartment, Yuuri’s fingers suddenly stopped moving automatically through the keyboard while answering an email when his thoughts strayed to his beautiful “roommate” and what he must be doing at that exact moment.

Yuuri opened a new tab on the browser and typed the name of Victor’s website written in the card Victor gave him. The homepage showed a lot of pets products, not only for dogs and cats: cages for rabbits and hamsters in the form of houses with various architecture styles, flavored ropes for rodents, fluffy and colorful beds made of lots of different materials, toys with every color, shape and texture one could imagine, the most adorable houses and washbasins for garden birds, wonderful decoration for aquariums and countless other creative things. Yuuri was amazed by what he saw.

Then he went to the “about” page and found some info about the company, products and stuff. By what he read, the company was hired by the best pet brands on the market to design creative and innovative products for them. Their portfolio was really huge, and Yuuri only thought they might be very successful with what they did.

There were three partners: Victor was the creative brain behind the products. A man named Chris Giacometti was responsible for the relationship between the clients and the company, so in other words, he was the person who sells. And there was also a woman named Mila Babicheva, the PR. She took care of the catalogues and the media of their business… the image of the company.

Scrolling down, he stopped when he found a photograph of the company’s founders and almost fell from the stool: the crazy red-haired girl who pushed Yuuri and Vicchan into Victor’s apartment was in the photo, and each one of them was holding their own pet by what the subtitle said. “It can’t be!!!” Yuuri said out loud! So that was how she knew Victor and had a key to his apartment. She wasn’t just a simple neighbor… she was his business partner, Mila Babicheva! It made sense now!

In the picture, Mila had a white cockatoo perched on her right shoulder, with a salmon-red crown of ruffled feathers over the head and the beak touching Mila’s cheek like it was kissing her. Chris, the partner Yuuri didn’t know in person, had a smirk on his face and his white fluffy cat with big blue eyes wrapped around his neck, the tail cascading over his shoulder like he was wearing a fur scarf. And Victor was in the center with long strands of silver hair falling over one side of his body, and holding a standard brown poodle with a lolling tongue out of her mouth. It was Makkachin, Yuuri was sure.

Victor had a big bright smile on his face, and somehow Yuuri felt like this Victor on the picture was different from the Victor he knew. No matter how much Victor smiled now, Yuuri hadn’t felt the contagious joy he transmitted on the screen, and it was like those two russians were not the same person at all. Maybe they weren’t.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS: Yuuri thought the name "Mila" was a common name in Russia, so he didn't link the name to the person the website told about until he saw her picture.


	6. Chapter 6

“Victor, what are you doing here? Otabek needs the new pet houses designs...” Chris trailed off, standing at the door of their storage room with his arms slowly crossing over his chest. 

Victor was going through the drawers of clothes for small dogs with a frown between his eyebrows. “I’m sending them in a minute, but Chris… do you know where we keep the coats and cloaks we designed last year?” Banging a few drawers open, Victor’s frown deepened.

“They should be right there. What do you want them for?” Chris asked lifting one eyebrow.

“A-ha! Found it!” Victor shouted kneeling on the floor and peering into the last drawer. “I’m going to give some of them to Yuuri. Vicchan is not used to the Russian cold and I’m worried he may get sick, you know? He’s so small and I would feel terrible if that happened, and...” Raising his eyes, Victor saw Chris’s teasing smirk. “What?” he asked, already reading his friend’s thoughts.

“Nothing, cherri! Nothing,” Chris said, disappearing into the corridor with a wave over his shoulder and leaving Victor to choose between pied-de-coq, argyle and burberry patterned coats. In the end, Victor gave up and took all three.

Standing, Victor prepared to leave the closet when the stacks of pets accessories caught his eye. Collars, bows, ties, hats, and shoes were stacked in neat piles and there was no way Victor could resist the chance to dress Vicchan in such cute things. 

He took each one of the little clothes he had over his arm and raised them one by one, trying to match them with any of the items on the shelf. He grabbed a bow tie (for special occasions), a hat and a beanie (for rainy or snowy days), a black leather set of shoes (because black was a very democratic color and would go with anything), a collar with a bell (because the noise was oh so cute),  and a knitted scarf (because it was a perfect match with his chosen sweater). 

Proud of his success, Victor did a last scan of the closet, grin going slightly goofy as he spied one more item. On the back of the shelf, he saw something very promising as a Christmas gift.

While Victor looked for paper bags to put the poodle’s new clothes, he couldn’t help but feel extremely excited to get home and show them to Yuuri. Maybe they could even have a little fashion show with Vicchan as the star! Vicchan would be the cutest and most stylish furball in St. Petersburg with his new wardrobe, and Victor couldn’t wait to make him wear the outfits he had personally coordinated. He would take thousands of picture and maybe even print them out for him and Yuuri to enjoy. 

So many fabulous ideas were whirling in Victor’s mind that he lost himself in the fantasy he was building, until the sound of Yuri carrying on in the corridor broke through his daydreaming thoughts and Victor realized that he would need some help to organize everything. “Yuri! Please, help me out here!” he shouted to the intern when the boy passed by the door.

“Do you think I’m your personal servant? I have tons of other things to do, you idiot!” Yuri shouted, shoving his blond head inside the room. 

“Come on! It’s a small favor. You’ll be free of me in seconds!” Victor said with a smile on his face. 

Instead of wasting time in a situation he knew he wouldn’t get out of, Yuri dragged his feet into the room, muttering while balancing a pile of papers and folders in his arms. Dropping them on the nearest table, Yuri sighed. “What do you want now?” 

“I need you to help me organize these things in those paper bags.” Victor answered pointing to the items spread in front of them. 

“Fucking God! What do you need all this for? Are we having a charity event or an auction that I don’t know about?” Yuri shouted. Despite his protests, Yuri sat on the floor of the closet, reaching for the raincoat in front of him with a scowl on his face.

“No, we’re not having any of that. I’m going to give them to our future cover boy.” Victor said with a mysterious smirk on his face. He opened one of the bags and started to stack the clothes inside.

“What do you mean? The animals from Seung Gil’s agency?” Yuri asked with a confused furrow of his brows. Grabbing a handful of accessories, Yuri tossed them into a bag, ignoring Victor’s displeased hum at his lack of finesse. 

“No. This one is special. He is the most adorable and friendly ball of fur you have ever seen, and we will make a winter special edition of the catalogue just with him.” Folding dog shirts, Victor wiggled his shoulders happily. 

“When did you decide that?” Yuri asked in disbelief. He was used with his boss’s eccentric creative process by now, and he learned not to discuss any sudden changes in plans when they came up. This time though, he failed to quash his curiosity. 

“Right now!” Victor answered, giving his intern his 220 volts heart-shaped smile, laughing as Yuri groaned.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

Yuuri would never admit it, but he was a pretty famous sports journalist, so much so that he could take his pick of stories. When possible though, he tried not to deny any opportunity that landed on his desk. 

He tried to make career as a figure skater when he was young, but gave up when it became clear he couldn’t control his anxiety issues. During his last competition he had finished last, even injuring himself in the last moments of his free skate when he attempted a risky jump to make up for all his previously missed ones. In the hospital, Yuuri had contemplated the circumstances that had led him to that moment and had come to a decision. He would stay behind the curtains and write about the sport he loved instead of participating in it. 

Getting a degree in journalism was the way he found to be close to ice skating and the other sports he found fascinating. As he shared his knowledge, his fame spread giving him opportunities to not only write but also act as a commentator on several TV channels. The pay was more than acceptable and Yuuri was happy. 

Yuuri’s working routine was simple. He generally spent the days writing and at night he attended to his real life obligations like cleaning, cooking and taking care of Vicchan. However, after he arrived in Victor’s apartment, he started to take a break at the end of every afternoon to make dinner for both himself and Victor. 

He loved every part of being at Victor’s house, but it had been a condition of his stay (proposed by Yuuri himself) that he helped with the chores. So he would cook every day and clean once a week (or when Vicchan’s fur accumulated on the furniture and floor). 

On their first night together, Victor got home early (because he was dying of missing Vicchan so much, according to him) and they went shopping. The cabinets in Victor’s apartment were practically empty and the fridge had only ice cream, a can of something Yuuri couldn’t identify, and frozen food that was long past its expiration date. Together they had explored the grocery store and Victor had happily translated labels so Yuuri could find all of his needed ingredients.

Arriving home, Yuuri had shooed Victor from the kitchen, laughing when Victor kept insistently popping back in to check on his progress. “What are you cooking, Yuuri?” Victor asked, entering the kitchen for a third time with Vicchan on his ankles. He had finally dropped all pretenses of needing water and spoiling Vicchan with treats. “It smells so nice!” Victor said, sitting on one of the stools in front of the counter and observing the agility with which Yuuri chopped and prepped the ingredients.

“It’s called katsudon. It’s one of my mother’s recipes.” Grinning, Yuuri cracked several eggs before throwing them into the pan with only one hand. 

“Wow! How do you that? Did you learn to cook with her?” Victor said with wide eyes.

“Practice. My family has an inn with hot springs back in Japan. I used to help her in the kitchen.” Yuuri’s pride was unmasked as he spoke. Since childhood, he loved watching his mother cutting the vegetables and frying seafood, his little hands tugging on her apron to beg to be the taste tester of her missô soup. It was the reason he had been such a chubby child actually, but he missed that time so much. 

Guilt leaked into Yuuri’s heart when he thought about his sister living with his parents to help them while Yuuri chased his dreams. Yuuri blamed himself for not helping them more, but he liked to think he helped in another way, with money for example. It’s one of the reasons he fought so hard to be successful as a sports journalist. Hearing Victor ask another question, Yuuri shoved his thoughts away and concentrated on preparing their meal.

“VKUSNO!” Victor shouted when he tried the katsudon. “Yuuri, this is God’s food!” he tried to say with his mouth full of pork. 

Victor’s smile had Yuuri’s heart beating excited rhythms in his chest, his mind slowly realizing how important it was to him that Victor liked his dish. “Thank you, this is my favorite food. My mom cooks it better actually…” Yuuri shyly said while preparing his chopsticks. On the tip of his tongue was the suggestion that Victor should try his mother’s katsudon sometime, but Victor’s excitement stopped Yuuri from saying the words. 

“Nonsense! This is wonderful!” Victor shouted again, this time spilling rice over the table. Yuuri laughed, Vicchan barked, and Victor ate until his belly was completely full. 

It was a perfect night.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter of the first part of this series, guys! Enjoy! ; )

 

 

One week passed with Yuuri and Vicchan sharing space with Victor. Meals, conversations and daily routines had already become comfortable in a way that Yuuri would have never expected. Everything with Victor felt easy and Yuuri would miss the accidental life he had found within the now familiar walls of Victor’s apartment. 

The creak of the front door opening had Yuuri smiling, turning over his shoulder to angle his head and listen to the sounds of Victor arriving home. 

“Vicchan! How is my favorite boy?!” Victor shouted, his cheerful voice carrying all the way to Yuuri in his room. 

Smile growing wider, Yuuri closed his laptop and headed to the living room. “Victor, you’re early. I hadn’t started preparing dinner…”

“Don’t worry about that, Yuuri. I brought a lot of nice things!” Victor interrupted him. He had a bunch of paper bags in his arms and Yuuri wondered why Victor had gone shopping by himself when they had created the habit of going together. “Did you see the sky today, Yuuri? It’s so clear, right? Not one single cloud or snowflake the whole day!” Victor said excited.

“Yeah… but what does that have to do with dinner?” Yuuri said with a low voice, trying to guess where Victor was going with his thought.

“Yuuri, here… help me spread these things on the center table while I move the TV,” Victor said putting one of the bags in Yuuri’s arms and walking to the TV rack to slide it to the side. This way, the huge glass wall was free, and the view behind it was breathtaking. Yuuri never noticed how nice the view of the landscape was because it was blocked all the time.

“Come on Yuuri! I want to show you something and I don’t want us to be late,” Victor said while getting back to the kitchen and grabbing the last paper bags. Victor sit on the fluffy carpet, turning to the glass wall with his back against the couch, then he started to unpack food: cheese, wine, small sandwiches, butter, jelly, french bread. “Come on! Hurry up!”

Yuuri opened his bag and started to take fruits from inside: cherries, grapes, strawberries. Then he pulled some chocolate bars and small glasses of flavored liquors. “Wow! Victor… are we waiting for someone?” Yuuri asked with widen eyes.

“Of course not! This is our indoor picnic! What do you think?” Yuuri stared at Victor and… said nothing. Then Vicchan jumped on Victor’s legs demanding some attention too. “Oh, of course I didn’t forget about you! Here’s your treat!” Victor exclaimed while he took a package of Vicchan’s favorite cookies from his pocket. This seemed to snap Yuuri out of his shock.

“Victor… don’t you think it‘s too much just for us?” Yuuri said, kneeling in front of the table.

“No, I don’t. And please take you place of honor, right here.” Victor said patting the carpet right beside him. Yuuri felt his cheeks burn a little, but obeyed nonetheless. Victor pulled the blankets from the couch and arranged them over both of their legs. “It won’t take too long now,” Victor said while plucking some grapes of the cluster. “Come on…” he tried to encourage Yuuri.

“What won’t take too long?” Yuuri asked, taking a couple of cherries and savoring them. It was really nice. 

“I wanted to show you something special to me, Yuuri. Something I only shared with Makkachin.” Victor smiled as he peered toward the window. 

Yuuri felt his heart race.  _ What could be so important that no human in Victor’s life knew about? _ he thought, studying Victor’s beautiful profile.

“It’s also one of the reasons I bought this apartment. You see… Makkachin was my only friend for a long time.” Victor said looking down and petting Vicchan’s head. “I grew up in an orphanage and many of the kids bullied me. The boys said I looked like girl, so they didn’t let me play with them. The girls said I was a boy, so they excluded me too. In the end, I was always alone… until I found Makka in a box on the street. We were so similar, and you can say I adopted her the same way she adopted me.” Victor said the last words with sadness in his eyes.

“When we were at the orphanage, I would climb to the attic with Makka and we would watch the sunset every afternoon. The house stood on the top of a small hill and the landscape was only grass, some small trees and the most colorful sky you could ever imagine. It was amazing… just like this.” Victor pointed to the window and the view stole Yuuri’s breath.

All the colors of the rainbow could be seen mixing together in that sky. It was fantastic, like a scene that came out of a fairytale. Grinning, Victor continued, “I loved all these colors. It was something magical for me. Makka and I shared this view for so many years, until I left the orphanage. During college years and the time it took to make our name in the market, we lived in a small room that barely had a window. So when I could, I looked for an apartment where we could see the sunset again. We spent many hours here and she sat in the same place as you are.” 

Yuuri looked at Victor and blushed hard this time. Even if he had words, he wouldn’t be able to speak them. 

“As you can guess, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a picnic to look at the sunset with someone.” The colors of the sky bathed Victor’s pale skin and he looked like a work of art. “I’m really happy you’re here. I can say I feel like this is a home again. Thank you.” Victor looked at Yuuri, and his eyes pulled Yuuri toward him, as if Victor was stronger than gravity itself. Their shoulders touched, a thrill of electricity sparked and swirled with a sense of coziness at the same time. The moment felt right, as if they were meant to be exactly where they were.

Slowly, the distance between them closed, until they were almost touching, eyes locked on each other. Yuuri broke the trance and lowered his head, resting it on Victor’s shoulder with a saddened sigh. 

He could feel Victor’s skin touching his hair. He could feel Victor’s smell on his clothes. But he could never have Victor. He would go away in a few days, Victor would go on with his life, and it would be much better if whatever this was stopped before it went any further. This way, there would be nothing to be sorry about, nothing to regret, and nothing to leave behind.

If he held back from wanting too much, Yuuri could enjoy the time they had. He  _ would _ enjoy this; the food, the moment, and the company. He felt honored by Victor’s trust, by the way Victor had opened his heart to reveal something so deeply personal. Yuuri only hoped that he could share something deeper with Victor too. 

But that would be it. They would never be more than distant confidants in each other’s worlds. Buried against the warmth of Victor’s shoulder, Yuuri told himself that it would be enough. 

It was the saddest lie he had ever wanted to believe.

 

THE (BITTERSWEET) END

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I have no idea when I'm going to update this story, but I have the next part all planned already.
> 
> I want to thank again my beta reader N3rd. Without her, this story would be lacking of salt... and sugar.
> 
> I also want to thank my Russian friend Mai (@maireyart on Tumblr) for sending me pictures of St Petes' sunsets as an inspiration for the main scene of this chapter. People say the sun never EVER goes out on Pete, and this was one of the reasons I named this fic the way I did.
> 
> I hope you liked reading my story, thank you for all the sweet comments, and please look forward for what's to come!


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